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Grex > Helpers > #130: Grex System Problems - Winter 2003/2004 |  |
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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 384 responses total. |
albaugh
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response 52 of 384:
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Jan 5 22:12 UTC 2004 |
So, in case we weren't warned that this was the case (were we?), should / must
we consider our mail inboxes to be "transient, unprotected, etc.", thus a
lower status of citizen than our personal directory? If so, then that implies
/ dictates that one must keep a secondary, local inbox for e-mails that can't
be replied to immediately. And that practice will exacerbate space problems
on the personal partitions.
What's up with this?
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tod
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response 53 of 384:
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Jan 5 23:19 UTC 2004 |
This response has been erased.
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ryan
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response 54 of 384:
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Jan 5 23:21 UTC 2004 |
This response has been erased.
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tod
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response 55 of 384:
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Jan 5 23:23 UTC 2004 |
This response has been erased.
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ryan
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response 56 of 384:
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Jan 5 23:46 UTC 2004 |
This response has been erased.
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mcnally
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response 57 of 384:
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Jan 6 00:04 UTC 2004 |
re #55:
the decision whether or not to back up e-mail is a fairly complicated one.
legally, not backing up e-mail is probably safest for Grex as it doesn't
put us in a situation where we can be compelled by subpoena to deliver
e-mail that a user believed he had deleted.
from a practical standpoint, too, e-mail backups are more difficult,
too, considering the much more rapid change of pace compared to most of
the files in a user's home directory, especially since the recently
changed information is probably the most important in the file..
A weekly backup schedule really isn't going to do most users much good
when it comes to e-mail and more frequent backups probably require staff
and storage resources that Grex simply doesn't have. If continuing problems
with mail loss occur, drive mirroring or some sort of error-recovery
capable RAID might be the way to go for the mail partition but periodic
tape backups won't help much.
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tod
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response 58 of 384:
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Jan 6 00:56 UTC 2004 |
This response has been erased.
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gelinas
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response 59 of 384:
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Jan 6 01:10 UTC 2004 |
It's not that simple, tod.
As long as a backup tape exists, it has to be searched to comply with a
subpoena or other legal discovery. The best way to go is generally accepted
to be not keeping any records not needed. (And yes, under Michigan law, an
e-mail is a "record".)
As was noted above, _right now_ we don't have the resources to back up
/var/spool/mail in a useful fashion.
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rcurl
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response 60 of 384:
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Jan 6 01:35 UTC 2004 |
If it is understood that mail service might be interrupted and mail lost,
then it is up to the user to decide whether they will use Grex for mail.
Is that caveat stated anywhere?
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keesan
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response 61 of 384:
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Jan 6 01:42 UTC 2004 |
Can the missing contents of inboxes be restored from the most recent backup
tape?
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gelinas
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response 62 of 384:
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Jan 6 01:44 UTC 2004 |
That question has been answered, Sindi: No.
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richard
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response 63 of 384:
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Jan 6 02:05 UTC 2004 |
yeah thanks to Jan and Kip for their hard work. I was talking on mnet to Jan
last night past three a.m. and he was at the pumpkin even then, so it must
have taken a while. To stay out all night when you have two kids, like he
does, shows real commitment! I hope some of the mail can be restored, I did
have unsorted old mail in my inbox. I hadn't realized that if it wasn't all
sorted into other folders, and the mail disk drive crashed, it would be lost.
oh well.
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janc
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response 64 of 384:
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Jan 6 03:12 UTC 2004 |
Kip has been able to repair the disk. We'll be shutting down Grex to restore
the mail for a while later this evening. Or rather, Kip will.
When things are going well, backups get done on Grex about once a month. When
the are going less well, we can go months without a backup. I don't have or
want to have anything to do with this. I don't know if the mail spool is
backed up, and if it is, I don't know how old the last backup was. Probably
at least a couple weeks.
I think restoring from an old backup tape would have been pretty awful. Mail
people had deleted would reappear. Weeks of mail would still be missing.
I'm glad we didn't have to go there.
If you want to gripe, you should notice that in the last board meeting minutes
STeve said that the mail disk was dieing and we should get a replacement.
I said in the item afterwards that we didn't need to buy a new disk as we had
plenty of unused ones waiting in the wings. So if we knew this disk was
on its last legs and we had a replacement disk, why didn't we do anything
about it?
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janc
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response 65 of 384:
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Jan 6 03:13 UTC 2004 |
Oh, in case you haven't heard it mentioned, Grex staff does not advise storing
any irreplacable data on Grex.
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albaugh
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response 66 of 384:
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Jan 6 05:53 UTC 2004 |
Regardless of all discussion issues, OUTSTANDING JOB!!! for merge-restoring
old e-mail with new. Re: e-mail inboxes, I guess that forewarned is forearmed
(forlegged? ;-). This should probably be pointed out prominently in newuser
and elsewhere, if not already.
(i.e. GREX MAKES NO GUARANTEES ABOUT STABLE LONGEVITY OF E-MAIL or some such)
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kip
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response 67 of 384:
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Jan 6 06:05 UTC 2004 |
Okay, earlier this evening, we were able to restore all the mail from the old
disk and preprend to any mail you may have received since the disk trouble.
So while we make no guarantees, we certainly do make the effort. :)
Thanks again to Jan, who was up most of the night Sunday. I got the easy
shift tonight restoring the mail spool. It's only a little after 1am and I'm
home already.
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richard
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response 68 of 384:
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Jan 6 06:09 UTC 2004 |
thanks kip
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charcat
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response 69 of 384:
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Jan 6 09:10 UTC 2004 |
Once again I give a well done to the fixers and keepers of grex!
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twenex
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response 70 of 384:
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Jan 6 09:12 UTC 2004 |
Well done!
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mary
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response 71 of 384:
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Jan 6 13:11 UTC 2004 |
Thank you, Jan and Kip for pulling night shift to keep
mail flowing. Very generous of you both.
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davel
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response 72 of 384:
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Jan 6 13:48 UTC 2004 |
Um. WOW. Kip, that is amazing, besides being an awful lot of work.
Thank you very much.
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cmcgee
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response 73 of 384:
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Jan 6 14:20 UTC 2004 |
Staff on Grex is awesome! Thanks folks for carrying enough about us to put
in that kind of effort.
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aruba
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response 74 of 384:
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Jan 6 15:26 UTC 2004 |
Indeed, I'm very impressed that Kip fixed the disk, and that Jan and Kip
spent so much time on this problem. THanks very much!
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gull
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response 75 of 384:
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Jan 6 15:40 UTC 2004 |
Re resp:52: Neither your mail spool nor your home directory are
guaranteed to be backed up on a regular basis. If you care about the
contents, copy them to your own computer. I'm lax about doing that too,
but when I do I usually just tar everything up and then FTP it to my
home computer.
Re resp:67: Many thanks, kip, for resurrecting the disk. :>
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slynne
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response 76 of 384:
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Jan 6 15:48 UTC 2004 |
Yeah, staff here are awesome. Staying up all night for email! Wow. That
is very much appreciated.
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